1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in beater mechanisms for manure spreaders and the like, and more particularly, is directed to a new and improved paddle construction for a spreader beater.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of manure spreader on the market today employs a single beater located at the rear discharge end of a box-type spreader and has an array of flat saw-toothed paddles mounted on a rotatably transverse shaft which upon revolution, engages, tears, shreds and scatters the manure to the rear of the spreader. Generally, there are right and left hand paddles that are mounted at an oblique angle to the axis of revolution so that the manure is scattered to each side of the spreader as well as to the rear. Over the years, there have been various paddle designs directed to improving not only the tearing and shredding characteristic of these paddles but also toward achieving a wide uniformly distributed spread pattern.
Such single type beater spreaders have proven to be economical over the multi-beater spreaders and perform quite satisfactory in pen-type manure, manure characterized in containing a certain amount of bedding material therein and which is of a solidified nature. However, the modern trend in livestock operations has been toward the use of less bedding material, due to the cost of the bedding material itself and the cost and labor involved in handling and disposing of a larger bulk of manure, thus resulting in manure being of a soupy or sloppy state having a high moisture content (less solidified consistency).
Some livestock operators have tried their box-type manure spreaders which they use for their pen-type manure on this new sloppy manure and are disappointed in that the present day paddle beaters can not effectively and efficiently handle this more liquidfied manure. The present day beater paddle is just not designed to rapidly scoop up this sloppy manure and consequently, as a result, it requires more time to empty a given load of manure, and furthermore, the desired uniformity and the width of the spread pattern is not attainable.
The "tank-type" spreaders, which are common in the art today, were developed for handling the sloppy type manure. Although these tank type spreaders sufficiently handle the sloppy type manure, they require more power to operate and are generally more expensive than a box-type spreader of a comparable capacity. Furthermore, these tank type spreaders are generally limited to the handling of sloppy type manure and are not efficient in handling pen type manure.